Hollywood loves franchises. With each passing year, fewer and fewer movies are released that aren’t sequels, prequels, or reboots of something else. This is especially true of the science-fiction genre. Star Wars, Star Trek — if it involves futuristic tech, space, or aliens, there’s a good chance movie studios will stripmine it for content. And yet, there are several standalone sci-fi movies that, for whatever reason, didn’t go any further than that initial adventure. Movies that featured rich worlds crying out for further exploration or even just a clever premise that would be fun to revisit.
We’re not talking about popular films like The Fifth Element or Galaxy Quest, where fans have been clamoring for a sequel since day one. No, we’re referring to lesser-known or forgotten IPs, hidden gems just waiting to be dug up and fed to the Hollywood franchise grinder. We’ve explored the topic before, but now we’re back with seven more underrated sci-fi films that deserved more love than they got — as well as a sequel or two.
1) Turbo Kid
Turbo Kid is what happens when you mix Saturday morning nostalgia with Troma. Set in a post-apocalyptic version of 1997, Turbo Kid is a love letter to BMX bikes, Nintendo, and ’80s films like Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and Solarbabies. Main character “The Kid” scavenges the wasteland looking for junk to trade and evading the evil Zeus (Michael Ironside) and his henchmen.
When The Kid stumbles across a gauntlet that looks suspiciously like a Nintendo Power Glove, he uses the weapon to liquify his enemies and mount a rescue of his kidnapped android friend Apple. Turbo Kid is campy, gory, and absolutely worthy of another go-around. While a sequel was technically announced, it was almost a decade ago, and the last update was all the way back in 2021. We want a Turbo Kid 2 stat before the original actor looks too much like a Turbo man.
2) Masters of the Universe
“Wait, isn’t Masters of the Universe already a franchise?” Yes, we’re well aware that He-Man and the Masters of the Universe IP are currently going strong with a new live-action film in the works. We’re referring specifically to the 1987 Masters of the Universe film starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella. As comics fans know, Masters of the Universe was based less on the Mattel toyline of the same name and more on Jack Kirby’s New Gods, with a little bit of Doctor Doom and Thor thrown in for good measure.
The movie featured less magic than the He-Man cartoon and leaned heavily into the sci-fi aspect of the property. Unfortunately, it also spent the majority of its runtime on Earth due to Cannon Pictures’ low-budget approach to moviemaking. A Master of the Universe sequel with a proper budget set entirely on the desolate wasteland version of Eternia from the first movie, if done right, could be an epic Shakespearean space opera the likes of which haven’t been seen outside of the Star Wars franchise.
3) The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The plot of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is as convoluted as its title, but honestly, the story is the least interesting thing about the movie. Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) as a character could have been the American Doctor Who. A physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock star, Buckaroo Banzai has the same expert-at-anything aesthetic as The Doctor and a rich history only hinted at in his lone theatrical outing.
Over the years, several attempts have been made to get a Buckaroo Banzai sequel off the ground, as a TV show, a comic book, a movie, and finally, successfully, as a novel. And while Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League, Et Al: A Compendium of Evils is fine as far as book sequels go, what fans want is a proper movie sequel full of the same wild sci-fi concepts and inspired lunacy of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
4) Dredd
In 2012, Judge Dredd fans got a wonderful surprise: a modest-budget sci-fi action film so good that it made everyone forget about the ’90s Sylvester Stallone misfire. Dredd got everything right that the older film got wrong, including its commitment to keeping the main character’s helmet on the whole movie. Taking place almost entirely inside a single tenement high-rise, Dredd showed viewers only a taste of Judge Dredd’s world and left fans hungry for a deeper dive into Mega-City One.
While the creators and actors have expressed interest in making a sequel to Dredd, nothing has materialized in the 13 years since the original film was released. Whether a streaming series or a theatrical release, we desperately need a follow-up to Dredd while Karl Urban is still spry enough to do it.
5) Killer Klowns From Outer Space
It has a cult following, an overabundance of Spirit Halloween merchandise, and its own Triple-A video game, yet in 37 years, Killer Klowns From Outer Space has yet to receive a single sequel. The 1988 science fiction/horror classic is ripe for expansion with a race of alien clowns or “Klowns” just begging to be let loose for another round of Halloween havoc.
The creators, the Chiodo Brothers, tried for years to get a theatrical sequel made, but rights issues blocked their efforts at every turn. The brothers then turned to television with a similar lack of success. Currently, a remake produced by Ryan Gosling is in pre-production, but if we’re being honest, we’d still prefer a low-budget sequel to the original from the Chiodos.
6) Krull
Of all the Star Wars clones to come out in the early 1980s, Krull was the one that came the closest to capturing the spirit and the lived-in universe feel of George Lucas’s blockbuster. The film takes place on Krull, a planet shared by several different races, including humans, Cyclops, and Fire Mares—a fantastical breed of horse able to run so fast they leave a trail of fire behind them. When an evil world-conquering despot called “The Beast” invades Krull with his army of Slayers, it’s up to a ragtag group of heroes led by Prince Collwyn to defeat him.
With an arcade game, an unrelated Atari 2600 game, a board game, frisbees, and even a Marvel Comics adaptation, Krull was set to be the big summer movie of 1983. Instead, it failed to make its budget back, thus killing any chance of a Krull follow-up. However, the movie has developed a cult-following in the nearly 40 years since its release. With the actual Star Wars experiencing a slight decline in popularity, there’s never been a better time to resurrect Krull through a reboot or legacy sequel.
7) The Last Starfighter
Of course, The Last Starfighter was going to be on this list. The 1984 computer graphics pioneer took Star Wars and made Luke Skywalker even more relatable by turning him into an Earthbound trailer park teen. Alex Rogan ( Lance Guest) got to live out every ’80s kid’s fantasy of becoming a real starfighter pilot, joining an interstellar war taking place millions of light-years away from Earth. The entire film acts like one long origin story, giving viewers just a hint of the galaxy beyond Earth and setting the stage for even bigger adventures for Alex that sadly, would never materialize.
As with the other movies on this list, several attempts at a Last Starfighter sequel have been made over the years with no success. Unlike those other films, however, The Last Starfighter actually did turn a profit at the box office, making its lack of sequel even more baffling.
Which underrated sci-fi movie do you think had the most franchise potential? Let us know in the comments!
